Rig is set up and been smokin' for about 6 hours now. Been a little tough keeping temperature as it's about 85 and sunny out. Cooling the smoke tube with water and cold towels seems to keep things at around 95 so the alarm's not going off too much. It's a little warmer than preferred, but hopefully still okay, the meat seems fine. Only 2 of the sausages are getting cooked versus just smoked. Guess I'll have them with dinner.

Brother, I'm not sure what I am more impressed with right now... This setup you've got here, the awesome food you are working on, or the fact that your digi cam date stamp is properly set. I am in awe all the way around!!

I too am a novice. Been reading the boards for a few months now and figure bite the bullet and try it out.

To answer your question - yes, you have to cook it prior to eating, and wow does it taste good! Sliced the loin and it was tasty. I prefer "traditional" American or stripy bacon as our British friends call it, but it was good. The pork belly traditional bacon was AMAZING. Hard to slice so some lesson learned there, but tasted fantastic.

After you cure the meat you have 2 choices for the smoking portion - cold smoke or hot smoke. Below is all opinion so put down your flamethrowers, boys!

A cold smoke is standard for bacon, some sausages and certain meats, even cheeses, depending upon what you are trying to do with them. You aren't cooking the food, but infusing the smoke flavor into it for cooking later. It's the true meaning of low and slow. Typically around 60-80 degrees for 6-24 hours. Just a little heat (I used no more than 15 coals and ended up averaging about 10 coals the entire time). Many use sawdust for the wood. I stuck with the wood chips. Chunk wood will either not burn or burn too hot.

A hot smoke is what most are used to - ribs, tri-tip, brisket, etc. You can do it with bacon, but once it's cooked, it's cooked so you're re-heating it unless you eat it all that day! Hot smoke is the normal 175-220 range. If you search bacon on the forums, you'll see a bunch of recipes, styles, and methods - both hot and cold.

Here's the loin sliced. I'll post some bacon picts if I can get some good-looking slices out of it:

tuftbb wrote:To answer your question - yes, you have to cook it prior to eating, and wow does it taste good!

OK, now I get it - - - sometimes it takes me a while - - - So you are creating good "smoked flavored meats" that you can cook weeks/months from now instead of having to freeze the meat that has already been cooked -- - right ?

Correct. After it's prepared and vacuum sealed, just treat it like you would regular store-bought bacon. Freeze it and it'll last for a while. Keep it open and it'll "go bad" or at least get discolored and lose flavor pretty quick.

OldUsedParts wrote:OK, now I get it - - - sometimes it takes me a while - - - So you are creating good "smoked flavored meats" that you can cook weeks/months from now instead of having to freeze the meat that has already been cooked -- - right ?

Tuft answered it already, but it short form. Cold smoked is still smoked, but not cooked. It is almost crucial to cure any meat you plan on smoking this way. Because it's cured, it will last longer than uncured "fresh" meat, but you'll still want to freeze it within good time. Now let's talk freezer! I have not personally noticed any difference in cured meat frozen >30 days vs uncured. Once it's frozen, you're pretty much on a level playing field.